Robert Crumb. 1974. "It's 'Red-Tag' Time in the Country." Cover for The Mendocino Grapevine. 1-15 April 1974. #16. 17 x 11 3/4 inches (half that length folded).
One of two covers Crumb did for The Mendocino Grapevine, a northern California counterculture tabloid. The drawing depicts the heavy-handed force of the authorities closing down hippie communes for supposed state housing violations. This cover is reproduced in Don Fiene's R. Crumb Checklist (p. 39) as well as a book about the alternative press (David Armstrong, A Trumpet To Arms, p. 200). The other Grapevine cover (see Odds & Ends, 1972 page) Crumb did was also reproduced as a color version for the Fox River Patriot and was also made into an etching.
I obtained this copy of the Grapevine from photographer Nicholas Wilson. He has published photos he took in the 70s in a beautiful book, Mendocino in the Seventies, which he kindly signed. The photos provide a nice context for the Grapevine period. A photo of two cops on page 65 reinforces the Grapevine cover theme; they had come to close down a rock festival based on a new county ordinance. To order the book: http://www.nwilsonphoto.com/book.htm
Nicholas Wilson. 2006. Mendocino in the Seventies. Published by Nicholas Wilson. Signed "For Michael - Nicholas Wilson".
